High-scoring Pelham edges ETB

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MT. VERNON — Pelham and the Eastchester/Tuckahoe/Bronxville faced off Tuesday night in a greatly anticipated affair between the defending Section 1 D-2 champ and an up-and-coming program. Making it even more enticing, the Pelicans were looking to avenge last year's upset loss to the Eagles.

Thanks to a five-goal second-period explosion, Pelham got its sweet revenge, dealing previously undefeated ETB (4-1) an 8-5 loss at the Ice Hutch.

“(ETB) is a very good offensive team,” Pelham coach Ed Witz said. “I guess we proved today that we’re a good offensive team as well. They’ve got some great players, but we’ve got great players, too.”

ETB — playing without head coach Dave O'Neil for the second game of a three-game suspension — took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission behind goals from Ian Palfrey and James McNamara. Pelham had several near misses as pucks trickled through the crease and clanged off goal posts

The Eagles, who started the second period with a minute-and-a-half left on a power play, looked to keep the momentum rolling.

But Pelham had other plans. The Pelicans killed off the penalty and then erupted for five goals in the next nine minutes. Pelham sophomore Andrew Schauer, in his third year on the varsity team, used his size and stick-handling skills to score his second goal of the game and assist on another during the spree.

Pelham played strong defense and used smooth transitions to dominate on offense. Two of their second-period goals came off of rebounds as they continuously crashed the net. Senior forward Graham Lambin punched in a pair of goals to extend the Pelicans' lead to 6-2 with five minutes left in the second.

ETB saw an opening when Pelham starting goalie Josh Borofsky was ejected in between the second and third period. He was nailed with a game misconduct after making a gesture toward the crowd as the two teams left the ice. Sophomore keeper Matt Deyoung came in for the Pelicans and quickly surrendered a goal to ETB’s Frankie Sherding to make it 6-4.

In response, the Pelicans simply turned it up a notch on offense,  giving their inexperienced goalie some confidence. Senior defensemen Mark Hernandez worked in toward the ETB net and knocked home a rebound to make it 7-4. It was Hernandez’s first goal in his four years on the team and a special one after missing most of last year due to a medical condition.

”It’s been a long road, it’s almost like a huge weight has finally been lifted off my shoulders,” Hernandez said. “(Will) MacInnis took a shot from the point and I figured I might as well get in front of the net and try to make something happen. It was loose in front of the net and I just put it in.”

Pelham senior captain Colin Reilly tallied his second goal of the game on an empty-netter with 1:12 remaining to cap the scoring.

“Everything is hustle," Schauer said. "We’re not a finesse team, but we just hustles. We got two or three rebound goals. All of our offense starts with our defense and it’s just a perfect way to play.”

GAME NOTES: ETB maintained its reputation as an explosive offensive squad with five goals, but they are going to have work harder on defense to compete with similarly offensive-minded teams like Pelham. At 4-1, Pelham will travel to John Jay-Cross River on Sunday while ETB will look to rebound at neighboring Scarsdale on Monday.

KEYS TO THE GAME
1. Punches in bunches: Down 2-1 at the start of the second period, Pelham put up five goals in the first nine minutes to take a commanding 6-2 lead. ETB had no answer for the speed and pressure of Pelham and, despite being even strength for much of the period, one got the feeling they were a penalty kill the whole time.
2. Loose pucks: Pelham scored 3 goals off of nearly uncontested rebounds and was able to set up shop in front of the ETB net throughout the second period. When ETB played physical and put bodies on the Pelham squad the teams were evenly matched.
3. Stick to the game plan: When Pelham lost their starting goalie after the second period and up 6-3, it would have been easy to sit back and protect sophomore goalie Matt Deyoung. Instead, the Pelicans trusted the untested keeper and kept pushing forward. Deyoung allowed two goals but Pelham scored two of their own to keep the lead at three.

SCORING SUMMARY
First Period
ETB (10:47) Ian Palfrey (PP) from Jack Dougherty and Frankie Sherding – 1-0 ETB
PELHAM (10:01) Andrew Schauer from Tristan Weeks and Garret Martin – 1-1
ETB (2:15) James McNamara from Mark Luciano and Chris Hagen – 2-1 ETB
Second Period
PELHAM (13:03) Schauer from Colin Reilly – 2-2 PELHAM
PELHAM (8:42) Graham Lambdin (PP) from Schauer – 3-2 PELHAM
PELHAM (6:44) Will MacInnis from Eric Albert – 4-2 PELHAM
PELHAM (6:00) Reilly from Danny Shea – 5-2 PELHAM
PELHAM (5:31) Lambdin (PP) from Will Cullen – 6-2 PELHAM
ETB (0:30) Palfrey from Hagen and Luciano – 6-3 PELHAM
Third Period
ETB (12:48) Sherding from Joe Blute Will Dougherty – 6-4 PELHAM
PELHAM (10:24) Mark Hernandez from Brendan Klienberger – 7-4 PELHAM
ETB (5:08) Luciano from McNamara – 7-5 PELHAM
PELHAM (1:12) Reilly (open net) from Schauer

TOP PERFORMERS
ETB: Ian Palfrey (2G); Frankie Sherding (1G, 1A); James McNamara (1G, 1A)
PELHAM: Andrew Schauer (2G, 2A); Graham Lambdin (2G); Colin Reilly (2G, 1A)

SAVES
ETB: Lucas Berger (24 saves, 8 goals against)
PELHAM: Josh Borofsky (13 saves, 3 goals against); Matt Deyoung (6 saves, 2 goals against)

SHOTS
ETB:            7  9   8  — 24
PELHAM:   7 15 10 — 32

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